My kid won't eat vegetables! Any ideas?

[Blanca78]

All she wants are carbs and dairy. She will go through phases where she'll eat, say, clementines (right now it's boiled carrots), but then the next day she'll refuse a fruit/vegetable I thought was a sure thing. She has constipation problems. I give her whole grains whenever possible but I worry about her overall nutrition.  So frustrating!

[ma-mo]

My 2 year old is the same. I have some success with smoothies. I make veggie puree and freeze it in an ice cubes tray-this week is chard, kale, carrots, and Lima bean-then I have him help me make the smoothie (he gets a to push the button on the blender. We usually do banana, strawberries, and blueberries with yogurt and milk (coconut milk is good too) and sometimes an avocado along with 2 veggie cubes. You can also add flax(seeds, oil, or meal) which is full of good things or chia seeds. Flax oil is really great for constipation 1-2tbs per day helped my little guy a lot when he was potty training and 'holding it' rather than poop on a potty. Anyway he can't even tell there are veggies in the smoothie and its really good for momma too!

[Lazurii]

If you're not against hiding veggies there's a few things to try.  I sometimes make homemade Larabars, but I sub a bit of raw carrot for some of the dates.  I recently read a lady that makes tater-tots using shredded zucchini in with the potatoes.  She bakes them in muffin tins.  If they'll eat tomato soup you can add a bit of beets or carrots before throwing it all into the blender.

[Nightwish]

Try soup. You say she likes dairy; put a tbs of cream in her soup. My dd loves it.
 

[P.J.]

Green smoothies! Or, if you have a juicer you can make juice combos including things like carrots or beets. My 2.5 year old mostly only wants to eat dairy products, bread products, or mashed potatoes. But he loves green smoothies and asks for them almost every day!
 

[Lazurii]

Ooo, another good idea I heard was to add steamed spinach to mashed potatoes and call them "swamp potatoes."  Some kids like that.

[Momo123]

I second trying soups to see if she would like it. At that age, my DS1 would not eat any vegetables either but would eat pureed soup so I would boil up some veggies (one kind or multiple) in a little bit of broth or water (I would even throw in cut up chicken breast in there sometimes for protein) and then puree the whole thing after it was finished. I would leave it a little thick for him then add more liquid for adults to make it more soupy. He loved sprinkling his own salt but maybe she might enjoy throwing in crumbled crackers, cheese and other toppings? His favorites were the sweeter veggies like carrot and pumpkin but I would put onion, tomato and other stuff in there too. At 3.5, he still likes all kinds of soups now and will sometimes eat unpureed soups now!

[Magali]

I get spinach/garlic into the kids by making a spinach pesto and putting it on pasta.  They call it green pasta and really like it. 

Homemade potato/sweet potato fries.  Mashing up sweet potato with marmalade and butter.  Funny though, something will work once, then no. no. no.  then oooh yeah we like this!  Kids lol.

[Blanca78]

Originally Posted by ma-mo 

My 2 year old is the same. I have some success with smoothies. I make veggie puree and freeze it in an ice cubes tray-this week is chard, kale, carrots, and Lima bean-then I have him help me make the smoothie (he gets a to push the button on the blender. We usually do banana, strawberries, and blueberries with yogurt and milk (coconut milk is good too) and sometimes an avocado along with 2 veggie cubes. You can also add flax(seeds, oil, or meal) which is full of good things or chia seeds. Flax oil is really great for constipation 1-2tbs per day helped my little guy a lot when he was potty training and 'holding it' rather than poop on a potty. Anyway he can't even tell there are veggies in the smoothie and its really good for momma too!

I LOVE the idea of having her help with a smoothie. I think she'd eat that, too.

Originally Posted by Lazurii 

If you're not against hiding veggies there's a few things to try.  I sometimes make homemade Larabars, but I sub a bit of raw carrot for some of the dates.  I recently read a lady that makes tater-tots using shredded zucchini in with the potatoes.  She bakes them in muffin tins.  If they'll eat tomato soup you can add a bit of beets or carrots before throwing it all into the blender.

Love the zucchini tater tots! Also, yes, she will eat soup, so adding stuff to it is a good idea.

Originally Posted by Magali 

I get spinach/garlic into the kids by making a spinach pesto and putting it on pasta.  They call it green pasta and really like it. 

Homemade potato/sweet potato fries.  Mashing up sweet potato with marmalade and butter.  Funny though, something will work once, then no. no. no.  then oooh yeah we like this!  Kids lol.

Pesto with spinach is a great idea! She loves pasta, so I think that would go over well.

So many great suggestions! Thank you all! I can't wait to try some of these.

[sassyfirechick]

Just a thought, if she's already getting constipated at a young age and she's 'craving' these things, that's a sure sign of a food intolerance - especially the dairy.  I would be limiting the dairy as much as possible bc all the fiber in the world won't make a difference.  And if she's craving carbs, switching to whol grain won't help if she's go even a mild intolerance to them.  DD has a dairy intolerance that will cause alternating loose poop/constipation so we avoid it for now so that it doesn't create a worse problem down the road.  Coconut milk is high in fat, fortified with vitamins, and has a thick/creamy texture like cows milk and works great as a substitute, especially if mixing it in smoothies, mashed potatoes or baking.  My LO chooses veggies over just about anything, but kids do prefer sweeter tastes and with veggies you can achieve that by roasting them with sea salt and olive oil, a littel cracked pepper and/or garlic to add more depth.  Think about it this way - do YOU really like to eat plain veggies? Or do you prefer them with some kind of sauce or dip?  Kids are the same way.  I also don't offer any foods in my house that I know would be chosen over a veggie, or at least she will get the veggies first and then, I might ask if she'd like something else and give the non-veggie as a treat.

Cauliflower steamed and pureed blends nicely into lots of things - soups, mashed potatoes (white or sweet potatoes), pasta sauce....

[Blanca78]

That's what mystifies me, though--I don't often give her just plain veggies. I love roasted veggies, for example, and she often won't touch them (sweet potatoes are good, though). I probably could do a better job of offering veggies first, though, and seeing how far we get with that.

The coconut milk suggestion is a great idea--thanks!

[newmamalizzy]

More on the soup idea, I give pureed soups to my DD in a little shot glass.  She LOVES that.  Spinach soup and broccoli soup are favorites. 

Does she like tomato sauce?  Sometimes I forget that tomatoes are a a vegetable, and pasta sauce is a great way to hide other veggies, like zucchini or eggplant. 

Also, I agree with really thinking about what foods you offer at the same time.  I really try to make the food I most want my daughter to eat also the one that she likes better than the other things on the plate.  The only vegetable that can stand with macaroni and cheese is broccoli with ranch dip, for example.  But with chicken or something, I can give her carrots or cauliflower and I know she'll eat 'em. 

Oh, and if you're interested in the most luscious, fatty green beans ever, Cook's Country has a recipe for green beans simmered with bacon, onions, and a teensy bit of sugar.  DD loves them.
 

[mummamilk]

I burned many a bridges as a new mom telling my friends their non-veggie eating toddlers were a result of parenting. Then along came my youngest. I had to puree veggies and hide them. Now he will eat almost every vegetable raw. Avocado and baby spinach leaves were his toddler favs. Soon as he had all his teeth I gave him raw veggies under close supervision.

[greenemami]

popsicles were my secret weapon when my kids wouldn't eat fruits/veggies.  I basically made a smoothie and poured it into popscicle molds and they loooove it, especially for breakfast :)

[erinmattsmom88]

I concur about juicing. My kids love our juicer and help stick stuff in it. It's VERY easy to hide veggies with the fruit juices.

Just the other night I made meatballs and sauce and put shredded carrots in the ground beef mixture. They came out really well. Kids didn't know.  You can hide shredded zucchini or summer squash, parsnips, fresh garlic (pressed), spinach, maybe kale. I'm sure there are others that I can't think of at the moment. When I make meatballs, I use italian bread crumbs and when I add shredded veggies as part of the ground beef mixture, I use half the amount of bread crumbs and the other half are the veggies.

I also make bran muffins from scratch and have been known to hide shredded carrots and zucchini in those as well.

[txreader]

Great ideas I can definitely use. Glad I saw this thread!

[Blanca78]

Originally Posted by greenemami 

popsicles were my secret weapon when my kids wouldn't eat fruits/veggies.  I basically made a smoothie and poured it into popscicle molds and they loooove it, especially for breakfast :)

Ooh yeah, I've done that before--last summer I made her "fiber pops" with ground flaxseed, prune juice, and overripe bananas--her diapers were not the same for quite a while. :D

[Blanca78]

Originally Posted by mummamilk 

I burned many a bridges as a new mom telling my friends their non-veggie eating toddlers were a result of parenting. Then along came my youngest. I had to puree veggies and hide them. Now he will eat almost every vegetable raw. Avocado and baby spinach leaves were his toddler favs. Soon as he had all his teeth I gave him raw veggies under close supervision.

Yeah, before I had her I was so pious about proclaiming that my kid would love vegetables and unfamiliar flavors from the start. My whole pregnancy I craved nothing but Indian food and now all she wants are cheese, yogurt, and toast. Glad your youngest likes veggies now!